Reach for the Sky

This morning I found some old books in my mother's basement. A copy of Reach for the Sky, the Douglas Bader story. I had inscribed it with my name in a strangely clipped copperplate script 'David MacGregor 1972'. Which means I was nine, the same age as my daughter is now.

It is interesting how the things that preoccupied my mind are so different from kids today. I was obsessed with planes and tanks of WWII. I am pretty sure my daughter wouldn't even know what Heinkel He 111 was, let alone a Spitfire (or its range and climbing rate).

Mind you there was also this book (below) in the cache - The Golden Book of Astronomy. Copy reads

"The time seems near when people will use rockets to get from one part of the earth to another. After successful round the world trips the next goal will be the moon."

Assuming I was reading that in 1972 it was a little late (contrasting that with live as it happens 'tweets' on my twitter feeds this morning when the US Air Airbus splashed down on the Hudson River).

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